The Call Part 2 John 14:12 5-19-13

Sermon 5-19-13 the call, pt 2 John 14:12x

¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Sermon series – the call

Recap of last week:

Our “Call” is our unique way of loving God and loving others.

And scripture is full of great call stories. 

Men and women whose lives were interrupted by this great command to

love God and love others.

All are called

Called to leave nets

Come and follow Jesus

Painful discussion

Someone told me that I inflicted pain on them

I said, well tell me about that.

They described a sense that I made them uncomfortable in their faith

I was comfortable, had it in the bag.  Now they are uncomfortable. Unsettled.

 Please help me be settled again.

Sorry to inflict pain, glad if you feel unsettled sometimes.

Should we ever relax and retire?  Should we ever arrive?

No, there is a pursuit

Dust of the rabbi

We want to control Jesus’ outlook calendar……

Pursuit of Christ should cause us to be unsettled from time to time.

In calling the disciples, Jesus is saying, you can do what I do, you can follow my way, you can become like me, you can follow me.

So we heard the invitation, “Come and Follow me”

Called away from nets and Called toward Jesus

In laying down the nets the disciples were able to experience the Way Jesus represents.

What is that Way?

What is the life that we follow after

What are we called towards?

Years ago, my parents went thru a very painful time…….

Read the bible, pray, and give 10%.

All of these things are good, but it isn’t enough.

Its almost not the point. 

When Jesus says, greater things, he is saying you can do this.

You can live as I am living, and do the things that I am doing

Not that doctrine is not important, it is, but the main point of Christianity is out there

It is how we live every day

It is how we carry the message

So What did Jesus do

Jesus framed his Way by reciting Isaiah (Luke 4:14-21)

Isaiah 61

¹⁴ Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. ¹⁵ He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.¹⁶ He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, ¹⁷ and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,  because he has anointed me  to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoner and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”^[f]

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

What did he do?

He brought good news to the poor

He brought freedom to the prisoner

He brought sight for the blind – physically and spiritually blind

He set the oppressed free

He proclaimed the year of the Lords favor

What does he do?

We are called towards him.  Called to do what he did

Not to sit and watch from a far

Christianity is not a spectator sport

Do you wonder what you are called to…here’s a start….

He raises the dead

          We probably are not going to be able to do that

          But have you ever known someone who was dead inside?

He cried w mary and Martha – he showed empathy

          You can do this

He opposes evil and casts it out

          You can do this

He feeds people

          You can do this

He embraced lepers

          You can do this

He talked about his faith.  Nicodemus. Woman at well

          You can do this

He did not judge people, in fact He challenges empty religion

          You can do this

He welcomed children

          You can do this

He forgives

          You can do this

He offers hope

          You can do this

He meets people where they are

          You can do this

He extends grace

          You can do this

He proclaims the year of the Lord’s favor.

Did we let that phrase slip by?

To a world that had been told that they were not good enough, Jesus proclaims Gods favor is upon them

Wow is there a need for that message today

To a nation of people who have been told that they are not good enough

To Christian people who have been told that they are not good enough

Jesus proclaims the year of the lords favor.

The time of judgment is over, now it is time to love and embrace and to be loved and embraced.

And with the disciples he mentors and deploys them

Following Jesus is like being an apprentice [electrician, plumber, mason]

Model of Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship looks like:: (Applebee’s training was like this)

I do                                You watch                              We talk

I do                                You help                                 We talk

You do                          I help                                                We talk

You do                          I watch                                    We talk

The cycle starts over and you are now the mentor

You do                          Someone else watches        You talk

This is training.  This is practice.  This is more than what many of us have been exposed to.

          Read Bible.  Go to church.  Offer 10%.   Be nice.

Following Jesus is more than follow the rules.

Jesus is inviting the disciples to a new life.

“It is time that we stop thinking of Christianity primarily as a way of believing, and instead begin to think of it as believing in a way”

The best part?

And..Jesus says we can do it.  That he’s with us.  That all the stuff we see him doing, we can do and do even more.

¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  John 14:12

Greater…more.  The mission is expanding. 

One man àtwelve Disciples àhundreds à thousands à us

We are Called to leave our nets
Called to learn the Way- called to follow.

You can do it.

Making Sense of God-6th Sense John 3:1-8 2/10/2013

Sermon 2-10-13 Jn 3:1-8 making sense of God – the 6^th sense

Sermon series making sense of God

Hearing seeing, tasting,

Today- the sixth sense

What is a sixth sense?

Sometimes we sense things that go beyond touch, taste, feel, hear…

Something is going on here that we don’t understand

Bill and Ted-Something strange is a foot at the circle K ---------- video clip

Star wars, may the force be with you

Something is going on here that is beyond us

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night.

He knows how spirituality works.

Its by the rules

But somehow it isn’t clicking for him

He knows that there is something else, something more

And he sees it in Jesus

Do you see this in Jesus?

There is something about this jesus

He is in touch with things that other people are not

He doesn’t just talk about god, he seems to know God

Are you attracted to people like this?

His words are so filled with grace,

His actions reach past the constructs of the Pharisees and touches people

in real life- down in their soul

Jesus has the mojo Jesus has the sav-wa fair

Is there a sixth sense?

There is something about true spirituality that defies explanation.

It does not fit into a box.  It cannot be contained.

Jesus explains that those who are born of the spirit are like the wind

You can’t tell where they come from or where they are going

Jesus walks thru the walls

Jesus senses his father is with him

Thomas is doubing..Jesus speaks to Thomas. 

You have seen & believe. Blessed are they who have not seen, yet believe

Our experience

Christians are supposed to be led by the spirit

What we are really talking about is a leading of the holy spirit

The wind blows from place to place, so are those who are led by the spirit

Many report having such sensations from time to time

How do we experience this?

In the general sense of right and wrong

[the order of the world causes us to stop and look, to think, there must be more]

A feeling that you get when you sit by a fire, a fountain or the beach

A feeling that you get when you look out over the mountains from the top of the continental divide

When you look into the room of your sleeping child at night

To sense that you love someone else, or that you are loved.

Intuitions – Nudges - Dreams

A message in the night.  You wake up and something is coming to you

Old time preachers used to say, I Know that I know that I know

What might these sensations be?

They might be last night’s pizza

You might be on drugs…..LSD..…blood pressure meds

It could be your imagination

It could be very Christian sounding imagination

And it just might be the spirit

How do you know if it is the holy spirit

1.   It draws you into the character of Jesus….makes you kind

²² But the fruit^(AI) of the Spirit is love,^(AJ) joy, peace,^(AK) patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Gal 5:22

2.   It points you in the direction of his purpose

People always expect an exact direction….go to Africa.  Become a nurse

But god’s direction if much more often about the who-ness of who you are than the what-ness

God has to allow some room in this world for our free will.

For us to make choices that he can celebrate

3.   It draws you away from self and out towards others

God’s will always points you out there…

The spirit should make you more relevant…..more compassionate. More connected

4.   These experiences Give you a peace

Even when they challenge you deeply, they give you a peace.

An it is well with my soul kind of feeling.

Where do you go with this sermon?

This is a series about making sense of god

About experiencing god

Be aware that there is a world of the spirit. 

And you can lean into it or you can lean away from it.

Much good comes to those and through those who are atune to the spirit

Don’t become crazy

Don’t become irrelevant

Don’t be afraid to do something Good

By his  spirit God always calls us to a purpose that is greater than yours

Perhaps our physical senses only exist to help confirm what our spirit knows down deep?

And when the world we experience overwhelms our physical senses,

or worse when what we experience seems so wrong, evil even, what are we left with?

We can still experience God.

Holocaust…death camps.

All physical senses where flooded with evil. -- Still many survived.

They recited bits of scripture and prayers.  They sang songs of the faith.

When their five senses were bombarded with death and hate and pain, they would not be broken, they would not be crushed, they would not succumb to despair.

Instead, the spark of life that is the Spirit within us, fueled the will to love, to share, to hope, to live.

There is a sixth sense, and  It is the work of the spirit that makes us aware of our Father

It is our encounter with grace. 

It is the light in the darkness,

the cool water for those that thirst. 

It is nourishment in the wilderness, because it is a recognition that God is with us.  We are not alone.  We are children of God, claimed and loved.

Making Sense of God-Week 1 Psalm 34:8 01/06/2013

Sermon 1-6-12 taste- making sense of God Ps 34:8

Taste and see that the Lord is good;^(N) blessed is the man who takes refuge^(O) in him.

Making Sense of God

Week 1 =Taste and See

New Year

·        New beginnings

·        New dreams (or opportunity to rekindle a dream)

·        New chances

·        New choices and opportunity to recommit to the choices we’ve made

Making Sense of God =

·        getting to know God

·        experiencing God more fully

·        living a life that is connected to God’s mission

Senses are powerful

          Just try walking across a room blind-folded or singing when you can’t hear yourself

We understand the power of our sense when we stand at the Grand Canyon; the ocean, the Redwoods [paint these pictures including the sounds, smells, feel]

In such places our senses are flooded with God’s power, beauty, presence

But if I ask what does God taste like?  How would you answer?

Can God be tasted?  And is tasting really what we want/need?

          A small sample Tasting vs.  a fully immersive savoring

Psalm 34:8

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

          Spend time.  Savor.

          Seeing = understanding/knowing.

          Tasting leads to knowing

My wife’s cooking.  To taste or to savor.?

This year will we simply taste or will we savor the things of God?

Most Christians are satisfied with enough to make them comfortable.

They don’t want to be challenged

Mt 16  Disciples and Jesus at Caesarea Philippi

Who do you say that I am

The Christ?  Great

Then look what happens………..

²¹ From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. ²² Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” ²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” ²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save his life^[h] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

Yes, I am the Christ, Now lets go suffer and die……….

Peter fights him

Get thee behind me Satan……you have in mind the things of man

You want to take the easy way

They knew who he was……

They did not know what he was about

They knew of the suffering servant.  [Isaiah 53] They didn’t want him to be that kind of savior

³ He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ⁴ Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. ⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

We identify jesus as the suffering one

But They Wanted a political leader

They wanted Jesus to kick out the Romans and restore Israel

Yet Jesus was determined to fulfill his calling

Luke 9:51 ⁵¹ As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,

Determination is a spiritual gift

Is there something about your life that you are determined about

Are you pursuing your life potential?

Is there something inside of you that continues to beckon you to a deeper place?

Doing the right thing pursuing your potential usually involves all sorts of difficulty

Hurting those that you love

Get thee behind me satan-

Putting self will on the block

·        Going to Jerusalem

·        Praying in the garden

·        Giving your life for a cause

·        Take up your cross

Was it easy to be Jesus?

The people were used to cool guys in expensive robes giving them instructions and assurance.  They had the power of the temple behind them. 

Jesus went against the flow of the day.

Is it ever easy to do the right thing?

What if spiritual change is like every other change in life

It requires hard work.

Not just attending church, or reading the bible, but opening one’s self to challenge

Page 30 – “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from the old ones.” John Maynerd Keynes

In what ways might we settle for a Jesus that is less

Are we interested in a Jesus that challenges us?

First Sunday of the year…….wesley covenant service.  Wesley challenged his preachers

How might we challenge you this coming year

How might you challenge yourself

This year will you agree to join us on an adventure?

          A year of gratitude, joy, hope (all of our branding words?) = more about this next week

Will you commit or recommit to growing closer to God; to seeking God; to making sense of God in your life?

John 6 unless you eat this bread and drink this blood

⁵³ Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh^(BJ) of the Son of Man^(BK) and drink his blood,^(BL) you have no life in you……….⁶⁰ On hearing it, many of his disciples^(BQ) said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”…….⁶³ The Spirit gives life;^(BV) the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit^[e] and they are life. ⁶⁴ Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known^(BW) from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him ………..⁶⁶ From this time many of his disciples^(BZ) turned back and no longer followed him.

Introduce communion.  A sacred time to go all in

Unless you eat ……

Hard they say…and it is. 

          Will we make the commitment?

          Will we accept the challenge?

          Will we set off on the adventure?

Prayer of consecration

End service after communion with the Wesley covenant prayer